It’s amazing to me how habitual it is to look at your phone. A lull in conversation? You look at your phone. Is someone else looking at his or her phone? You immediately search for yours. Hear a phone go off? You quickly glance to see if it was yours.
Since the creation of smartphones there are more and more people spending significant periods of time on their phones. Their lives are completely absorbed in funny articles on Facebook, cool pictures on Instagram, and catching up with their favorite Vine star videos.
I don’t want to be one of those people that are so focused on the digital world that they lose focus on the world around them.
Bad habits are hard to break, however. Even after deleting social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter from my phone – I still found myself looking at them constantly.
Due to this, I made a plan to use my phone productively when the bad habit took over.
I installed apps that were beneficial to me, rather than just time-wasting. They included the following:
1. Duolingo
A few years ago I made it a point to start learning German. However, that quickly faded as time went by. I reinstalled Duolingo and now am making it a point to pick up on learning a new language again. So far I’ve done well. I’ve been averaging logging in 3x/a week, but I have found parts of it difficult with the app’s new features. There are now a lot of sounds and even a voice feature that uses the microphone. This would be fine while sitting at home, but while at a bar or restaurant it’s not the easiest thing to do.
2. Acorns
Acorns is an investment app that takes your spare change from your debit or credit card purchases and puts it into a diversified portfolio. With Acorns, you don’t have to do any work but add a few extra dollars in each month. If you don’t have any experience in investments, just put in a few dollars and don’t go beyond your comfort level. Your portfolio can be as conservative or as aggressive as you’d like, it’s all based on your preference. If you feel like your portfolio is too risky, or aren’t paying attention to your gains the way you should be, just cash out.
3. Ready for Zero
Ready for Zero is an app that helps you make a plan to conquer and eliminate your debt. I use it to track progress I’ve made on my student loans. It is easy to look at your student loans and feel hopeless. This is why I’ve set up an account on ReadyForZero. On the app you can see the progress of your plan and see when you can get rid of it visually. As time goes by you will see that loan getting smaller and smaller, bringing back the hope you are so desperately searching for.
4. Bing
I don’t know if you knew this, but Bing gives you money to shop! All you have to do is set up a Rewards account, do searches from your phone/computer each day and you’ve got some spare cash! (Well, gift cards to be more specific). I personally cash out the gift cards on Amazon purchases and was able to save BIG money this Christmas because of it. What better way is there to spend your wasteful phone time than by making money?
Anyways, those are just a few apps that I’ve found beneficial.